Driving while looking at a display or keypad on an electronic device is dangerous because it takes the eyes off the road and requires focused concentration on interacting with the device. Merely talking on a mobile phone while driving is also dangerous, but not as dangerous because the eyes can be on the road and the concentration required for talking is less than for reading or visual controlled finger manipulation. The dangers are greater for a solo driver with no adult passenger than for a driver with an adult passenger. A technical solution is needed that will reduce the attractive distraction posed to solo drivers by electronic devices with keypads or displays, particularly mobile telephones, by restricting some of their functions when moving.
Systems to automatically restrict uses of moving phones will not be effective unless service providers make them automatic for most phones of young solo drivers in a region. This will not happen unless all vendors must implement the system at the same time. This will not happen unless implementation is required by legislation. Legislators will not require implementation unless:                1. Writing, reading and incoming text message rings are blocked.        2. Emergency calls can be made and received while driving.        3. Phones of independent adult passengers are not restricted.        4. Voice calls are allowed for independent adults when driving is easy, but calls by dependent children or employees are limited.        5. Costs to voters and cell phone users are modest.Objectives        
Electronic devices with keypads or displays of all kinds usable in automobiles (including dashboard electronics with displays, entertainment, and driver assistance) can be programmed so that certain functions of the display, keypad, speaker or microphone cannot be used or have modified functionality at certain times. A core objective is to disable or restrict some of these functions when located in a vehicle moving at more than a threshold speed and the device is in easy view of a solo driver but not when in a passenger's hands. The device might be more restricted when experiencing acceleration from lane changes or turns or speed changes and less completely restricted when moving at constant speed with no lateral acceleration. The restrictions might be greater for children and employees than for independent adults.
Systems to control restricting uses of dashboard mounted devices should be designed to also control restricting of hand held devices. However, it will be roughly 15 years before such systems are in 80% of the vehicles used by young people. In the meantime, as phones are replaced every two years on average, we can implement now a solution that operates in the phones and the telephone networks. Systems that are first implemented in the phone system should be compatible with future phone restricting systems based in the vehicle.
No User Action Solutions
The preferred solutions are “no user action” (NUA) solutions (all driver phones are automatically restricted when moving by action of the phone system) rather than “user action required” solutions (phones are not restricted when moving unless the owner of the phone or vehicle has installed a system to do so). In the “no user action” (NUA) solutions, cell phones of young solo drivers (and sometimes passengers) will be restricted when moving faster than a threshold such as about 15 mph (plus or minus about 8 mph).
The phones of passengers (and sometimes drivers) may unrestrict if they connect to an unrestricting override transmitter. The override transmitters may unrestrict the phone if the phone display is not in view of a driver or there is another passenger in the car, which might be determined by detecting the presence of another active phone in the car and the usage patterns of the two phones show they are not typically used by just one person.
There are four types of unrestricting override transmitters:    1. If there are two active cell phones in the vehicle connected by Bluetooth and SMS message and their usage patterns show they are not typically used by a single person, one phone may act as an override transmitter for the other.    2. Retrofit override transmitters will be available that any car owner can buy and install to uncripple passenger phones, whether or not there is a second cell phone in the car.    3. Mass transit vehicles will have override transmitters for all new phones in the vehicle.    4. Newly manufactured vehicles will be made with override transmitters that will determine which phones are unrestricted and when.
Phones issued to children or employees can omit the unrestricting feature at the option of the phone owner. They will remain restricted whenever they are moving. Alternatively, they can be programmed with a different restricting algorithm to be more often restricted or more greatly restricted than standard phones.